


Christmas Decorating at the Starks'

by TheLadyOfFangorn



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Decorating for Christmas, Fluff, Gen, Ironfam all round bitches, SHENANIGANS OCCUR, happy's eggnog, in this house tony stark still lives ok, ironfam, ok it's a lot of crack, pepper has to intervene, slight crack, what can i say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21966322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyOfFangorn/pseuds/TheLadyOfFangorn
Summary: Just a fluffy, cracky Ironfam fic with everybody together and decorating for Christmas. Includes bossy MJ, 'special' eggnog, and Pepper being the on-the-ball woman we know and love.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Christmas Decorating at the Starks'

Pepper couldn’t decide whether to keep going into the room, or if it was wiser to just turn around now.  
From where she was standing, she could see Peter hanging from the ceiling by a web, arms full of tacky gold garland that he was winding around the tree in a continuous spiral. Harley was at the base of the 12-foot (at least) tree that was the centerpiece of their living room. Ned was reclined on the couch with a joystick and control panel in hand. Pepper thought he might be the culprit behind the ornament-carrying drone that was flitting around the uppermost branches of the massive tree. MJ stood on the balcony above, hand jammed firmly on a sweater-clad hip, periodically shouting directions to the boys (which, of course, the boys paid no mind to).  
Pepper sighed, thought _“Screw it,” _squared her shoulders, and walked into the living room. As soon as she was within the line of fire, MJ directed her attentions to Pepper.  
“Could you PLEASE tell them they’re hanging the garland wrong?! It’s not supposed to go from the bottom up!!” she yelled down. Pep raised her hands in the universal sign of “leave-me-out-of-this.” “Nope, not getting involved in that battle.”  
“What battle, babe?” Tony’s voice asked from behind her. She started and turned to look at him. “The battle of how to hang decorations on the tree. You remember, the one we seem to have every year?”  
He smirked, coming closer and circling his arms around her waist. Propping his cheek on her shoulder, Tony’s smirk turned into a real smile as he watched the teenagers’ good-natured bickering. “It could be worse” he said quietly. “They could be out vandalizing properties and knocking little old ladies down as they cross the street.”  
Pepper chuckled at that, the mental image of any of their ‘kids’ causing trouble a very odd picture indeed. She patted the top of Tony’s head, “Move. I want to get out of these shoes and get a cup of coffee.” He obliged, unwrapping his arms from around her. “I think Happy went to the kitchen to make his ‘famous’ eggnog for the kiddos,” Tony said.  
Pepper groaned, thinking of what happened at the SHIELD Christmas party last year when they served Happy’s eggnog at his insistence. Half the agents had passed out after two cups, and the other half had suddenly decided to break out into spontaneous, off-key singing and/or that climbing the tree was a brilliant idea. Rhodey had nearly died laughing, especially when he was able to get a video of Hawkeye and the Black Widow snuggling under the tree. (This video, unfortunately, is no longer in existence, as when the rest of SHIELD sobered up Natasha realised what Rhodey had done. She promptly stole his phone and wiped the video from it, along with the 34 still-shots he had taken.)  
“I told you we should’ve banned him from making any more!” she said, promptly forgetting about her coffee. That could wait until the most recent crisis had been averted. “I’m going to go run interference with him, and _you _,” she poked a finger in Tony’s chest “are going to swap Happy’s eggnog out for the regular stuff I’ve got in the fridge without him noticing.”  
Tony made a face, “Why do I have to do the heavy lifting? Why can’t I distract him?”  
Pepper just gave him a look. “Besides the fact that you are hopeless at keeping secrets from Happy?”  
He rolled his eyes and let out a dramatic, put-upon sigh. “Fine. Come on; we’d better move fast if you don’t want the kids to get their hands on it.” Pepper all but walk-ran to the kitchen at the thought of Harley, MJ, Peter, or Ned getting their hands on the spiked ‘nog. Heaven knew they were chaotic enough without the help of dubious chemical ingredients that she really didn’t want to consider for too long. The house might get set on fire again, and then she really _would _start pulling her hair out.  
As she reached the kitchen, Tony at her heels (still looking very put-upon- not dissimilar to a child who is being dragged to a social event by his mother), Happy came to the doorway that separated the living room and kitchen. He had a tray in his hands that held five mugs. As soon as he saw Pepper, Happy’s smile brightened considerably and he gestured (carefully) with the full tray “Evening, Pep! I didn’t know when you’d be home or I’d have made you a mug too!”  
She smiled at him, while continuing to advance so he was forced to retreat into the kitchen a bit. “That’s alright, Happy. Is that your eggnog? I have to get that recipe from you! Could you write it down for me?”  
Hoping that Tony was still behind her and would actually do his part, Pepper managed to convince Happy that she needed the recipe _right now, yes, well I wanted to make it for Christmas dinner tomorrow and I love how you make yours. _  
Apparently, she was a good enough actress that he set the tray down long enough to find a pad of paper and a pencil (a neon green pencil with a pink floof at the end) with which he wrote the recipe down, chattering away at her all the while. As Happy handed her the finished recipe, she glanced over at Tony, who was standing by the sink with an innocent (yeah, right) look on his face. She gave him a pointed look that said, in Pepper-Tony speech _“Did you do what I wanted you to do?” _He gave her a bright smile in return, wiggling one eyebrow with the meaning of _“Yes of course, darling, don’t I always do what you ask?” _  
Pepper gave him a look and followed Happy out of the kitchen. In the time it had taken for them to pull off the Eggnog-Exchange, the kids had managed to put up the rest of the ornaments and garland, and were now sitting upon various pieces of furniture, admiring their work with rather smug, self-satisfied smiles.  
As Happy handed out mugs of the now-safe eggnog, Tony made a slow circuit around the tree, inspecting it with a serious expression. When he made it back to where Pepper was standing, he nodded and said “Nice job guys. You’re hired again for next year!”  
The teenagers traded smiles and settled back into the couches and (for Peter) a large beanbag chair. “Though…” Tony continued “you do realise that if you put it up, you get to take it down and put it all away?”  
This earned him some very creative waves from MJ and Harley (the one-finger kind) and a chuckle from Pep. “Come on and sit down, troublemaker,” she said, plopping onto the loveseat that was currently unoccupied. “Should we watch the Santa Clause or the Grinch?” she asked. It was discussed for a few minutes, and the decision was reached that a marathon of the three Santa Clause movies and then the Grinch would be appropriate. After Tony settled in next to her, JARVIS dimmed the lights and started the movie. As the first few bars of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” began to play, and Tim Allen’s character came onscreen, Pepper found herself blissfully drifting off. For all the stress and business that the Christmas season brought with it, she would gladly deal with it all if it meant she could have moments like these, with her little mismatched family together and happy.____________

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so so much for reading this! It's my first fic to publish on AO3, and I am excited to have something I feel ok with sharing. Comments and criticisms are accepted with open arms!  
> My tumblr is https://theladyoffangorn.tumblr.com if you want to swing by and see the chaos I've got going over there!  
> Have a great day/night/whatever you're having.


End file.
